On 21 June 2007 Environment Bay of Plenty councillors have formally decided to relocate their headquarters from Whakatane to Tauranga.
The decision confirms a June 1 Council recommendation to amend its Ten Year Plan to enable the headquarters relocation to proceed. Council formally adopted the proposed amendment to the plan, which will transfer approximately 100 positions from Whakatane to Tauranga rather than the 130 positions originally proposed.
A change to the original proposal means that information services, information computer technology and laboratory staff will remain in Whakatane along with the originally proposed staff from rivers and drainage, sustainable land management, hydrology and hydraulics services, and other field based services. It will also mean Maori policy staff will be located at all Environment Bay of Plenty offices. Approximately 70 staff will be based at the Whakatane office.
Council will now begin working towards being based in Tauranga by 2010.
Full media release - 21 June 2007
Ten Year Plan Amendments Booklet (276KB, pdf)
Background
On 7 December 2006 councillors made an 'in principle' decision to relocate Environment Bay of Plenty's headquarters from Whakatane to Tauranga. For the past 17 years, the regional council has worked from its headquarters in Whakatane.
The Council gathered information on matters like costs, and economic and social impacts. After studying all that information, councillors decided on 15 March 2007 to take the proposal a step further, and propose amendments to Environment Bay of Plenty’s 2006-2016 Ten Year Plan.
Councillors agreed to go to the public consultation phase and sought comment from the public. Over 770 submissions were received and over 200 people spoke to their submissions over the duration of the hearings.
A range of documents that informed part of the decision are available for download at the bottom of the page.
Deliberations
On 1 June 2007 Council decided to proceed with a proposed amendment to its Ten Year Plan to enable a relocation of its head office to Tauranga. It also amended the proposal to enable the transfer of approximately 100 positions from Whakatane to Tauranga, rather than the 130 positions originally proposed.
Council has considered the impact of the relocation on the eastern Bay of Plenty. They passed an amendment to consider allocating funds to assist the growth of the eastern Bay of Plenty economy from 2008, and to assist organisations that contribute to the eastern Bay of Plenty’s social well-being.
The following reports relate to the Ten Year Plan Amendment and HQ decision that were also considered by Council at its meeting on 21 June 2007
Hearings and submissions
The hearings have been held and all submissions are available for the public to view. Copies of each submission are available at Environment Bay of Plenty offices in Mount Maunganui, Rotorua, and Whakatane. You can also download the summary of submissions by clicking on the links below.
For more information about the HQ proposal please download and read the following documents:
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